If you're not a current student of KYUEM, you'd be spared the controversy that's broiling amidst our verdant uplands.. If you are, you'd have to be living under a rock these past 2 days to be oblivious to this issue..
The March 2005 edition of our college newsletter, Veritas was distributed last Friday and personally, I was feeling kind of proud that my petbro A lived up to his promise of meeting my challenge (read this).. I intentionally didn't read it at first because I wanted to know what other people thought of it before I started to read it..
And that was when all hell broke loose.
There was an article written by 'Utterly Fed Up' that questioned whether we KYUEMans were truly prepared for life in the UK.. The writer argued that although this college is supposedly preparing us academically to go to UK, we are governed by conservative rules, i.e. gender segregation in assemblies, Dining Hall, etc. The writer also made references to many races and countries and to say that the article was racist, controversial and downright rude is an understatement..
The fact is, it's become a huge issue within our college walls and I fear that this will spark a silent war between our Muscom and the non-Muslims.. Most importantly, I'm afraid of the consequences it will bring to Veritas as a whole..
I won't lie to you.. Veritas is my pride and joy.. I loved every second doing it with my team and whenever anyone speaks badly about it, I feel very sad.. But knowing that there's nothing I can do about it, I keep the sadness inside and it turns into anger.. I don't think anyone would understand the conflict of emotions I'm in right now.. I claim no responsibility over what was published, but is that really valid? I was the one who pushed A and his Veritas team to perform and it's possible that the article was let through just to shake things up - and thus, prove a point with me.. I've already told them, and the few people responsible, that whenever one member of Veritas gives an opinion, it represents the opinions of everyone in the group.. Just watching all the drama unfolding right before my eyes just makes me want to scream : "I TOLD YOU SO!"
Just think about it.. ONE article was enough to challenge the credibility of Veritas as a respected publication and the people behind it.. ONE article was enough to divide the whole college into starkly contrasting camps.. Only ONE article, who was written by presumably ONE person, was enough..
I can't imagine the heat that A is going through just because of that ONE article.. I admit, being the chief editor, he could've exercised more caution, but still, this is a huge price to pay over just ONE article.. I saw him in Pn. R's room and from what I gathered, he was in there for hours.. Now a lot of people are targetting him because obviously he's the leader and leaders must take the responsibility..
Probably I'm feeling this way because I know exactly how he must be feeling.. I used to get a lot of heat too.. There was this Blackadder article that blasted the senior house members of Topaz and the poor organization of KYUEM's invitational rugby tournament.. Then, there was this article about our college teachers that didn't gel well with the college staff.. After those articles got published, I heard threats were going out to the writers and rumours of Veritas getting banned.. And when I heard that Pn. R wanted to force the writers' name out of us, I quickly asked Mr. F for help.. Luckily our team survived those ordeals..
I feel very sad that it has come to this.. And I have a feeling that all this isn't going to die off during the holidays.. People will remember.. And you know what the funny thing is? I don't think the writer will repent.. As long as he/she holds anonymity, he/she will think that it's safe.. In fact, I'm sure that the writer will start to feel empowered because his/her words were able to stir up so many people.. And because he/she believes so strongly in what is being said, the conviction will only become stronger because that's the only mechanism left to defend himself/herself..
Egoes.. Everybody has them.. It's never easy to accept that you're wrong.. Including me.. It's going to be an uphill task for the writer to stoop as low as to give a formal apology.. So what's left to do?
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NHA at 2:26 PM ::
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